Jesuit Father Frans van der Lugt, who had worked in Syria since 1966, is seen talking with civilians in January. (CNS/Reuters)

Dutch Jesuit, Who Served 50 Years in Syria, Killed in Homs

April 7, 2014 — Dutch Jesuit Father Frans van der
Lugt, 75, who refused to leave war-torn Syria, instead staying in Homs to help
the poor and homeless, was beaten by armed men and killed with two bullets to
the head today, according to an email sent by the Jesuits' Middle East province
to the Jesuit headquarters in Rome.

Fr. Van der Lugt, who had worked in Syria since
1966, declined suggestions to leave because he wanted to help Syria's suffering
civilians — "Christians and Muslims — anyone in need," said Father
Giuseppe Bellucci, head of the Jesuits' press office.

Fr. Van der Lugt became known around the world
after appealing for aid for the people of the besieged city of Homs in a video
posted on YouTube in late January.

The United Nations supervised an evacuation of
about 1,400 people from Homs in early February; arriving in Jordan, the
refugees confirmed Fr. Van der Lugt's accounts of people, especially young
children, starving to death.

Speaking to Catholic News Service by telephone Feb. 6, the Jesuit priest had said: "There has been no
food. People are hungry and waiting for help. No injured people have been
allowed to leave. Families have been hoping to get out of the siege and out of
the fighting between the two sides.

"The wounded have not received proper treatment,
so healing has been difficult. Newborns die very quickly because of a lack of
milk," he said. "There have been cases of death due to hunger and
starvation."

Fr. Van der Lugt was
born
April 10, 1938, in the Netherlands and entered the Society of Jesus in 1959. During
the almost 50 years he served in Syria, he worked in education and in a project
for handicapped people. In the 1980s, he opened Al Ard
("the land"), a center of spirituality just outside of Homs. The
center housed about 40 children with mental disabilities from nearby villages. He was also a psychotherapist and very involved
in interreligious dialogue.

In a statement, the
Holy See’s press spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said Fr. Van der
Lugt “died as a man of peace, who with great courage in an extremely dangerous
and difficult situation, wanted to remain faithful to the Syrian people to whom
he had dedicated so many years of his life and spiritual service. Where people
die, their faithful shepherds also die with them. In this time of great sorrow,
we express our participation in prayer, but also great pride and gratitude for
having had a brother so close to the most suffering in the testimony of the
love of Jesus to the end." [Sources: Catholic News Service, Vatican Radio]

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